


you're there with open arms

by stxvetony



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Angst, Artist Steve Rogers, BAMF Natasha Romanov, Bucky Barnes Is a Good Bro, First Meetings, Fluff, Getting Together, Grief/Mourning, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kid Peter Parker, M/M, Mutual Pining, Oblivious Steve Rogers, Oblivious Tony Stark, Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Protective Pepper Potts, Protective Peter Parker, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Tony Stark, Slice of Life, Slow Burn, Steve Rogers Feels, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, who is basically tony's nephew
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-09-28 04:18:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17175737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stxvetony/pseuds/stxvetony
Summary: The other boy smiles, and Tony thinks this kid must be crazy to be smiling at someone who just knocked him over on the sidewalk. “It’s fine.” He grins. “I’m Steve.”“Tony.” The corner of his mouth twitches up. “What’s someone like you walking around in the middle of some sketchy neighborhood in New York City?”or in whichSteve and Tony meet each other again after 3 years in their last year of high school but everything is different. For one, Tony, Steve's best friend, at least for that summer, is apparently Tony Stark, the genius teenager who is heir to Stark Industries.Sure, it was easy when there was nothing except two preteen boys playing until the sun came up during the summer, but in the last year of high school, where pasts come back to haunt them, nosy friends won't leave them alone, and one sticky nephew who is fiercely protective of Tony hates Steve, well, it would be a miracle of the two of them can finally overcome themselves and learn how to be friends, and then something more.





	1. chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i finally gave in to my urge to write stony yay? thanks for reading i appreciate you very much!!

Steve Rogers was born a sickly little kid, often prone to asthma attacks or becoming sick with the flu. His mother was terrified he wouldn’t survive the winters, especially when they were too poor to pay for heating in the tiny apartment. 

When Steve was young, the skinny little kid had trouble making friends, choosing to sit by himself in the corner during school. The other kids either made fun of him, or chose to ignore the odd frail stick whose eyes seemed to burn into their soul. 

It was fine for Steve though, but Sarah Rogers worried constantly for her son’s future, as she watched him sit in the floor scribbling away at tiny pieces of paper with a crayon which was falling apart. 

When an 9 year old Steve met one James “Bucky” Barnes, Sarah felt herself breathe a little easier. She knew she would only have a handful of years left to live, and she was glad her son had someone who would look after him long after she was gone from earth. 

Tony Stark was born into a cold unloving family, where his father viewed him as simply a piece on the chess game of life, a piece for him to manipulate and mold into the perfect person to continue his legacy at Stark Industries. His mother loved her son with all her heart, but would never stand up to her husband, for the fear of her life. 

When Tony was young he was homeschooled by various tutors who would care less about the boy, only loving the money and pay. His only friend was Jarvis, his butler, one of the only people who cared about the young child who led such a unhappy life. 

Tony wasn’t okay, but he learned to be fine with his life, so he dealt with it. He learned to grow up a little too fast, how to close himself off from the world. The young genius learned physics, learned math, understood concepts which grown men could not even comprehend, but he wasn’t happy.

When an 12 year old Tony met one James Rhodes, the boy learned what it was like to have a friend, his age, to have someone he could rely on. 

The two kids would meet when they were both 14, the summer before high school. Although they both knew what it was like to have a best friend now, they would now know also, how it was like to love someone with all your heart, even if they didn’t know it at first 

° ° °  
Tony walked along the city streets of some odd neighborhood, kicking rocks away into the dead of the night. It was probably about one in the morning, but Tony Stark had long forgotten what a normal sleeping time was considered to be. By the next school year, his father would be moving the company to somewhere in Malibu, leaving him and his mother in the city. In some twisted way, the boy was relieved that his father wouldn't be with him the next year. However, this also meant he was forced to go to public school, a school which would surely hate him. Tony didn’t want to make friends. He was perfectly fine to have only Rhodey and Pepper with him after all. 

So here he silently sulks to his heart's content, before he found himself crashing into another person as he neared a park. 

Tony looks up in shock, his eyes meeting with another boy who looks to be about the same age as him, perhaps younger, whose eyes were an astonishing color of the ocean. 

“I’m sorry.” Tony says looking away momentarily. 

The other boy smiles, and he thinks this kid must be crazy to be smiling at someone who just knocked him over on the sidewalk. “It’s fine.” He grins. “I’m Steve.”

“Tony.” The corner of his mouth twitches up. “What’s someone like you walking around in the middle of some sketchy neighborhood in New York City?”

A slight blush crosses Steve’s face. “I couldn’t sleep I guess.”

Tony raises his eyebrow in surprise. “Huh. Me either I guess.” 

“Nightmares?” Steve smiles sympathetically. 

“I don’t know. Sometimes, yeah.” Tony wasn’t sure why he would ever tell a stranger that but for some reason he thought he could trust the strange boy. 

The two of them walked around the city for what felt like hours, until the sun came up from the horizon at least. By the end of the night, Tony felt like he had a new best friend. 

“See you maybe tomorrow?” Tony asks before he got into the car by the curb.

“Sure.” Steve smiles. “Maybe a little earlier, not all of us can survive just on caffeine without sleep.” 

Tony laughs before he slips into the car where Happy is waiting for him. 

 

° ° °

 

It becomes a daily thing between Steve and Tony to meet up at night and just talk with each other for hours on end.\

One would think that as a result, the two would know everything about each other, when reality was far from true. Tony never gave out his last name, never delved out information about his life at home. Steve never revealed his condition, never revealed his life at home either. 

Their meetings became the highlight of both of their lives. Tony wishing he wouldn’t have to go back to the cold dark mansion, empty of abuse from his father, but no less depressing, and did very little to bring happiness to his life. Steve wishing he didn’t have to always go back to being trapped in his apart, loved, but feeling useless, spending his days drawing and trying not to become sick. 

When the summer days drew to a close, both wished the days would go on forever, but alas this was not the case. High School was starting for both of them, so on the day before summer ended, the two found themselves talking for hours. 

When it ended, Tony smiled at Steve, the sort of genuine smile that he could only make around the other boy, before slipping out of his life. 

For the time being at least.

 

° ° °

 

Steve leans against his locker towering over everyone who mere months ago were taller than him. He catches the giggles of girls looking at him and whispering to each other, girls who would be caught dead talking to him last year. 

“Steve? What the fuck happened to you?” 

Steve smiles before turning around. “Hi Sam.”

“Dude when were you going to tell me that you turned into a greek god after the summer?” Sam gapes at him, looking up to meet his eyes. “And you’re taller than me now that’s great.” 

“That’s what I said!” Bucky’s voice comes from behind Steve from the other side, dripping with sarcasm. 

“Buck, you saw me literally yesterday.”

“My point still stands. What the fuck?”

Steve sighs in exasperation, although he could feel his heart swelling in love for his friends. As a senior in high school, he had since changed drastically from his early days in high school where he relied on Bucky far too heavily. Last summer, he hit a growth spurt, and finally dragged himself to the gym, resulting in well, his physique nowadays. 

“Our little baby finally hit puberty. I’m so happy for you!” Natasha jumps on the back of Steve, making him stumble a little. He laughs, forcefully pulling her off of him. 

“Get off me.” Steve grumbles, shutting his locker after pulling out a massive amount of books for class. 

“Looks like I won’t have to carry all your thing everywhere for you, Punk.”

“You didn’t --”

Steve begins to walk to his class with his friends, shrinking onto himself after seeing the gazes of the rest of the school. He makes himself feel a little better after hearing the bickering of his friends in the background, happy that at least the important people in his life wouldn’t care very much about his new look. 

He walks into class, slumping into a seat by the window, where he sits perfectly shadowed by Thor in front of him, allowing him to spend the time sketching and daydreaming instead of paying attention.

He drifts off after a while, tuning out the drone of the teacher, until a sudden open of the door startles him back to reality. The rest of the class looks up as well, where they meet a boy wearing sunglasses, even inside, and dressed in clothes which exude expensive and high maintenance. 

Steve immediately decides he hates him. 

The teacher sighs, pushing up their glasses before turning to the rest of the glass. “Class, this is Tony Stark, he is going to join our school for your last year.”

Whispers immediately broke out among the class. Tony Stark was notoriously famous for being the only son of Howard Stark, a millionaire genius whose scandals and nightly escapes were constantly online. 

Bucky scoffs besides steve. “I don’t see what’s so special about someone who has no respect for others.”

Steve silently agrees with his best friend, as he watches the other boy sit down behind him, propping his legs on the desk in front of him. He watches as this Tony reaches up to take his sunglasses off, and when he does so, Steve suddenly couldn’t breathe. 

Tony’s eyes meet with his, shock and nostalgia filtering through his dark eyes, before settling on a blank, unreadable motion. 

Steve turns away from him, but couldn’t get the picture of his eyes out of his head, the same eyes that haunted him throughout his first year of high school, the eyes that constantly appeared in his dreams, although their appearance has decreased after a while.

Steve couldn’t believe that little boy he used to meet up with in the long summer nights, the boy who had brightened his days up when his self esteem was at an all time low, was sitting right there behind him. 

Tony, his best friend, if only for a summer, was Tony Stark, genius, playboy, heir to one of the biggest companies in the world. 

The same boy who couldn’t seem to acknowledge him now, but had definitely recognized Steve, the same boy who would now make a crashing appearance back into his life. 

For better or worse, Steve wasn’t quite sure yet.


	2. chapter 2

Steve sighs as he heaves his backpack over his back and trudges down the hallway towards the cafeteria. Everywhere he turns, he hears the gossip of his fellow classmates about the new kid, Tony Stark. He sighs, feeling disappointed in himself for caring so much about someone who quite obviously didn’t care much about him anymore. 

Still, he couldn’t help but want to defend the other guy when all he hears down the hallway is about how “easy” Tony is, how much of a jerk he is, and how people want to be his friend simply for his money. 

Shaking his head in disbelief, Steve plops down at the table where he sits with his friends, who as usual, is as loud and rowdy as ever. 

Bucky is fighting with Sam, as usual, hurling insults across the table, although they were never truly malicious at each other. Bruce is deep into a book as usual, Thor staring at him with fondness, and Steve hopes that the two of them will finally get together so everyone else could stop dealing with the two pining after each other for almost half a year. 

Steve looks up from his lunch to see Tony walk into the cafeteria, practically strutting as if he were on a runaway, his smile twitching slightly up, as the noise quietly subsided as heads turn towards the newcomer.  

Steve turns away angrily, he can’t bring himself to keep on watching this new version of Tony, so different from the young boy he remembers, yet so similar at the same time. Tony drops himself down at the table where Justin Hammer and his lackeys sit, and Steve silently scoffs, because of course, Tony would choose that group of people to hang out with. 

It would seem as if the rest of his friends were watching him as well. “That kid smells like trouble. He already has everyone eating out of his hand and I hate it.” Clint mumbles next to Steve as he runs his fingers through Nat’s hair who is deep into some papers sitting on the table.

“You guys haven’t even talked to him, why are you making assumptions?”

Steve and the rest of the table lookup to see Pepper Potts standing disapprovingly above them. She had moved to attend the school during the sophomore year, and became quick friends with Natasha, forming a terrifying duo. 

“Have you seen the aura he just gives? He is literally so self-entitled and the shit that he pulls on the news with little respect for anyone -- why are you defending him anyway?” Bucky asks, seeming to be the biggest critic of Tony in the group. Steve isn’t surprised Bucky is so wary and mad about Tony though, for after putting up with Steve getting bullied for so long, his best friend had an instant dislike for anyone who could appear to be condescending or a shadow of a bully. 

“Just don’t be so hard on him. He really isn’t that bad.” Pepper smiles sadly before marching across the cafeteria and dragging Tony out of his chair. 

“Pepper!” Tony’s voice goes up about 2 octaves, so different sounding in manner than all his actions since setting foot in this school. 

“You and I are going to have a little chat.” 

“Pepper, love of my life, my favorite --” 

Pepper simply shoots the struggling Tony a dirty look before dragging him out of the cafeteria, slamming the door behind them. 

A brief moment of silence occurs, before talking breaks out among the groups, most people wondering what the hell just happened. But all Steve could feel was an intense longing that he couldn’t quite place.

 

 

° ° °

 

 

Steve walks along the sidewalk, dragging his feet back to his apartment which he now shares with Bucky beginning at the start of this school year. He isn’t looking at his surrounding and when he accidentally bumps into someone, his head flies up in shock. 

‘I’m so sorr--” The words die on his lips as he finds himself staring down at Tony Stark’s eyes. 

“Um.” Steve looks around desperately, wondering what he was even supposed to say to his best friend he hadn’t seen in three years. 

“Deja vu.” Tony smiles a little, a hint of something more innocent and childlike, more genuine peeking out from all his masks which he put on throughout the day at school and in front of the public eye. 

Tony tilts his head slightly, before slipping out from Steve’s eyesight, vanishing beyond a corner behind him. It is almost as if he was never there, and Steve simply hallucinated his appearance, for the wish that things could be the same again. 

When he looks down at the ground, however, he finds a small slip a paper. Reaching down to grab it, Steve opens it to see the words: “ _I’m sorry. - Tony._ ”

 

 

° ° °

 

 

Tony Stark opens the door dropping unceremoniously down on the beat-up couch of Rhodey’s small apartment, where the other teenager is humming to himself while heating up a bowl of soup. 

Rhodey looks up from the kitchen, not surprised to find the Tony sitting with his feet propped up on the couch, rubbing his temples. Tony carries an odd smile on his face, and as he relaxes, all he could remember with the blue of Steve’s eyes staring back at him almost accusingly. 

“Why do you look so happy? Was the new school that good or something?” Rhodey asks, coming over to sit at the arm of the couch. 

The door opens before slamming loudly and when Tony looks up from where he is laying on the couch, he finds an angry Pepper stomping her way over to him. 

He shrinks on himself, interjecting before she can begin to launch into some sort of spiel about how he needs to be himself or some shit like that. “Okay so before you say anything, I would just like to point out that I am doing perfectly fine and I don’t need your help in --”

Rhodey sighs. “Tones you gotta stop acting like a jerk all the time and not letting anyone actually see the true you.”

Tony attempts a smirk. “Why would I do that? It’s not like they would care about me.”

He shakes his head. “Whatever.”

Pepper looks sad momentarily, but quickly shakes it off, knowing better than to press Tony for answers, resting her hand on his shoulder momentarily before springing up towards the kitchen to presumably raid Rhodey’s fridge.

Rhodey looks sadly at Tony, before sighing, and giving him a short hug. 

Tony sits there on the couch, staring blankly at the TV playing on the screen. 

“And now, it is reported that Tony Stark, the son of Howard Stark, has made news once again with his nightly escapades --”

Tony angrily shuts the TV off, sighing to himself. He wasn’t sure how long he could put his act up for much longer. How long he could continue to fool himself into thinking he was okay. 

What would Steve say nowadays if he saw Tony for who he truly was?

 

 

° ° °

 

 

When Steve walks into his apartment, he finds Bucky and Nat cuddling together under the blankets watching TV. Vaguely wondering what was going on between the two of them, Steve sighs to himself before dropping his backpack and heading to his room. 

Bucky looks up from the TV, shooting Steve a questioning look but not pressing him for questions just yet, although Steve knows that later he would no doubt ask for answers. Lying down on his bed, Steve stares at the ceiling for some time, thoughts of Tony running through his head over and over again. 

When he closes his eyes all he can see is that boy who is so much taller than him, looking at him as they run through the streets of New York City. All he can see is that boy, so full of innocence, so full of life, whose eyes used to constantly sparkle with mischief, dragging Steve along everywhere for some new adventure. He can’t bring himself to see the tabloid version. The Tony he sees at school, who remains impassive, only smirking at girls, the Tony who didn’t give a shit about anyone, not caring about anything, much less Steve. 

Steve stares at the ceiling for a while, not realizing how much time passes until Bucky softly opens his door. “Hey. Nat just left do you still want to eat dinner?” 

“What time is it?”

“8:34.”

“Fuck. 2 hours passed?”

“Yeah punk. Wanna tell me what happened” Bucky sits on the edge of the bed where Steve is lying down. 

“It’s fine.”

Bucky raises a disbelieving eyebrow at Steve but shakes his head. “Sure.” He reaches over to ruffle Steve’s hair, causing Steve to shove him off the mattress. 

Bucky laughs at him, Steve feeling as if everything was back to normal before Tony randomly made his confusing appearance to be known back into his life. 

But it wasn’t. And Steve isn’t sure just how much Tony’s appearance will affect him in the long run. All he knows is that this will surely make for an interesting year. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok! so i promise the next chapters will be relatively long compared to these sldfkjh i'm trying to update fast for literally once in my life. SO thanks so much for reading! i love and appreciate every single one of you and feedback is always appreciated :)


	3. chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> long time no see? the sad thing is that me updating now is considered relatively fast for me. anyways! thanks for reading! i'm sorry that this chapter isn't as long as some of you may have wanted, i've mostly been doing my tumblr requests instead of writing for this fic, but i hope that i will soon get back to writing this daily/regularly. i would appreciate greatly kudos and comments :)

Steve stumbles his way into the kitchen, immediately making his way towards the fridge. On a normal day, he would have been up and running out of the door for his daily morning run an hour ago, but it would seem that everything that transpired yesterday had taken more energy out of Steve than he originally thought.

He runs a hand through his hair, debating on whether or not he should finally try coffee for the first time, considering how utterly drained of energy he currently felt. Bucky had probably already ran out the door to meet Nat, as he insists that she made the absolute best bacon.

Steve sits on the kitchen counter, seriously considering resorting to caffeine as he rolled the dusty coffee package in his hand.

“Are you seriously sitting on the counter when I had those cleaned like a week ago?”

“By cleaning do you mean wiping a cloth on it for like half a minute and no more?”

“Um yeah. Do you know how much effort I put into doing that? I spent valuable time out of my busy day to help you move in!”

Steve sighs looking up from his coffee package which still sits in his palm. “Your busy day doing what? Spying on people from random places and stuffing your face with my food?”

Clint smirks. “Exactly. You know me so well Cap.”

“Stop calling me that Birdbrain. Wait, how did you even get into our apartment?”

Clint smiles, holding up his hand to dangle the keys from his wrist. “You guys should really be more considerate of where you put your keys. I mean underneath the conveniently placed plant next to the door?”

Steve sighs, holding out his hand for Clint to drop the keys in. “Point taken.” He concedes.

Clint hops onto the counter as well. “Did you heard about Bruce and Thor?”

“Wait -- I thought you were freaking out over me ‘ruining your counters’ literally a minute ago. What happened to that?”

Clint glares at him. “My counters my rules. Anyways guess what! Bruce and Thor finally got their heads out of their asses and started to date.”

“Your counters? The fuck-- Wait, they did? Finally, it was nauseating watching them pine after to each other for so long.”

“Mhm.” Clint opens the fridge rummaging through their breakfast food before looking up. “Where’s the food?”

“Get your own food.” Steve shoves him.

Clint continues to snoop around the couch, before he pulls out a small piece of paper, and suddenly, Steve’s blood runs cold.

“Ooh! What is this? ‘I miss you - Tony.’ Who’s Tony? A secret admirer? Thats--”

Steve jumps down from the counter, running over the snatching the piece of paper away from Clint’s prying hands. “Clint. Give me the paper.”

He breathes hard, stuffing the piece of paper back into his jean pocket.

“Are you that embarrassed? It’s okay Steve. Look, I know you’re a virgin and everything but that doesn’t mean --”

“Clint. Shut the fuck up.” Steve yells, snapping at his friend, his face turning bright red in anger.

Clint stares back at him with wide eyes. “Dude, I’m sorry.”

Steve shakes his head, breathing heavily. “It’s fine. Just don’t do that again please.”

“Okay” Clint nods mutely.

° ° °

Tony stays in his car by the entrance, already noticing a decently sized crowd begin to gather, all excited to see the first glimpse of the Tony Stark. He smirks slightly, before shooting a thank you to Happy and beginning to get out of the car in a normal showy fashion.

“Tony!”

Tony looks back behind him to find a breathless Peter Parker running around the curb, barreling his way through the crowd to Tony.

Tony smiles softly, so different from his usual playboy smile, and bends down slightly to catch the younger boy who is just entering middle school.

“Guess what, guess what!” Peter rolls forward and backwards on the balls of his feet, his excitement crackling in the air as if it were somehow tangible.

Peter rambles on without stopping. “Aunt May said that I could spend that day with you today because my teacher is sick already and substitutes are stupid. And the school already said yes since Mr. Fury is nice. So please?” Tony is about to refuse, not wishing that Peter would get in the middle of all the bullshit that this high school is, or honestly any place that Tony usually went to outside of his own apartment. But one look at the boy’s puppy dog eyes, just pleading for him to say yes, his resolve breaks.

“Fine.” He sighs. “But don’t get into too much trouble, okay?”

“Okay!” Peter grins showing off his teeth, before taking Tony’s hand and dragging him towards the entrance of the school as the crowd parts slowly in shock for the pair.

Tony looks back at the car, where Happy is smiling sympathetically at him, eyes dancing with amusement, before he rolls up the window and drove away, while Tony found himself lost in the crowd of students now entering the building.

° ° °

Steve is leaning against his locker like he usually does in the morning, listening to his friends drone on and on about god knows what. There’s a commotion at the entrance of the school, and vaguely, Steve wonders what it is all about, before he pushes it out of his mind as he hears the bell ring.

“Guys hurry up and stop gossiping.” Steve groans dragging Bucky by the arm towards his class. Before he can though, out of the corner of his eye, he sees the flash of a figure which looks like Tony Stark, and he stops abruptly, letting go of his best friend’s arm in the process.

Turning his gaze to the left of where he is standing, he sees the usually smirk Tony seems to wear these days, but a nagging feeling of something being different persists in his mind. There seems to be almost some sort of softness in the other boy’s eyes, and it is then, when Steve follows his eyes down to see a young boy, who couldn’t be older than perhaps 12 years old, clutching Tony’s hand.

Steve jolts up slightly in shock, his eyes continuing to follow the young boy, who Tony seems to tolerate, or even care about in his life. The boy is looking around with wide, curious eyes, noticing all the shocked stares which looked at him while his older counterpart didn’t seem to notice.

Instead, it would seem that Tony Stark was heading toward Steve Rogers.

Tony stops in front of Steve, eyes softening perhaps even slightly more than they already were, as Steve holds his breath along with the rest of the people in the hallway.

Instead of explaining anything at all, or even greeting Steve for that matter, instead, Tony shoves another piece of paper into his hand, before once again, vanishing with the confused kid trailing behind him.

Opening up the piece of paper, so similar to the first one, he find a small note.

“For a few months I was so happy. You didn’t know who I was though, and you should have never known. I miss you, and I wish we could be friends again, best friends. But we can’t, and I can’t talk to you anymore, like this or otherwise. I’m sorry Steve. -Tony”

Crumpling up the piece of paper, Steve stops for a second momentarily, before quickly running out of the hallway into his class, a tear running down his cheek as he avoids the eyes of his schoolmates or his friends. And in class, he slumps into his seat, making no eye contact with all of the looks being shot at him, from Tony, from his friends, even from the teacher sometimes who wonders why the boy seemed so sad in the back of the class.

When lunch approaches, Steve rushes out of his class, heading towards the cafeteria out of pure reflex, before hesitating slightly in front of the two huge metal doors which led into the noisy hall. He shakes his head, thinking he was too much of a coward, before turning his back towards the noise and out to the quiet hallways. He is contemplating which classroom he should slip into when he hears a small voice behind him.

“Mr.? You okay?”

Steve looks down, to find the very same boy he had seen this morning who had been trailing behind Tony Stark. “Yeah. It’s fine.” He shakes his head, not wishing to dwell into anything with a kid who seemed to be a good five years younger than him, especially one who seemed so close to Tony.

“Sure you are. You’re making that face that Tony always makes when he’s pretending to be --” The kid stops short of himself as if he isn’t sure if he’s allowed to continue talking about Tony.

“What about Tony?” Steve attempts to ask gently. It would seem that perhaps the only way to get answers on just who exactly Tony Stark is, would be to go through the young kid in front of him.

The kid stares at him suspiciously. “Why do you want to know more about him?”

“Kid-- Look, My name is Steve. What’s yours?” Steve sighs, underestimating just how protective the kid was of Tony.  

“Peter.”

“Hi Peter. I only want to know because Tony is my friend and I only hope for the best for him”

Peter’s face turns stormy, as he closes himself off to more prodding. “Tony would have told me about you. You’re just trying to take advantage of him like every other person in his life.”

“Kid no!” Steve says about in desperation. “I um-- I knew Tony some time ago.”

“That makes you even worse because that means you abandoned him and I will not have that.” Peter stomps away in a huff.

“Peter! The Cafeteria is that way.” Steve points in the other direction of where Peter is currently heading.

The other boy glares at him, before following his direction and slipping into the cafeteria doors.  

Steve sighs, putting his heads in his hand, sinking against the nearby lockers.

How did everything get to like this in only a couple of days?

° ° °

By the time Tony slips into the front door of the apartment, Peter clutching his hand tightly behind him, Tony is simply so fucking tired of everything that happened during the school day. He looks down at Peter, whose eyes were slightly red from crying, and Tony sighs, reaching down for Peter and putting him on the couch.

“Pete. It wasn’t your fault, I promise.”

Peter sniffles, looking up at Tony’s eyes through his unusually long eyelashes. “I’m sor-sorry. I didn’t mean to cause a scene in front of all those people.”

Tony pulls the trembling boy into a hug, smiling sadly into his hair. Peter had come into the lunch room, moody and angry, immediately reaching out to Tony who had been trying not to strangle Justin Hammer who sat in front of him. Peter had a notoriously bad temper sometimes, and when Rumlow made a snide comment about Tony, well, Peter started yelling at the other jock. The kid was fiercely protective of Tony, and the only people Peter trusted with Tony came down to only Rhodey and Pepper.

Tony lifts Peter’s head gently, looking him in his eyes. “Pete, it’s fine. Was there any reason for it though? It was worse than usual, and I don't want to know if anyone hurt you.”

Peter looks away angrily. “I met this guy called Steve.”

Tony’s head shoots up. “St-Steve?”

Peter huffs angrily. “Steve said he used to be friends with you, and wanted information on you, even though he probably abandoned you.”

Tony shakes his head fondly at Peter. “It’s okay, I promise. Steve isn’t a bad person. He used to be my best friend.”

“Well now he’s not, and I don’t want him butting into your life all of a sudden and hurting you.”

Well, Tony thinks, at least he wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore. It’s better for both of them if they stayed away from each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [follow me on tumblr!](https://stxvetony.tumblr.com/)


End file.
